felser

The remaster of Tim Buckley/Goodbye and Hello, the Rhino Handmade release of outtakes, and the Morning Glory collection are the most critical ones to me. There has been some other live things which have come out, but later periodperformances, subpar sound, etc. The DVD which came out in the spring is pretty wonderful as a documentary with insightful interviews etc.(though the picture and sound of the performances are subpar), and the Dream Brother book (which I am reading right now) is excellent. 'Greetings From LA' and 'Sefronia' are pretty easy to find now.

From the Concord site: NEWS 27 Aug 2007 Prestige Records Releases Interplay, A Remarkable 5 CD Box Set of John Coltrane’s Early Collaborative Sessions Available September 18, 2007 Interplay, Prestige Records’ new 5-CD set, containing early collaborative recordings of the peerless tenor saxophonist and visionary John Coltrane serves two distinct purposes. The first is to offer an extraordinary collection of music that provides an excellent overview of the modern jazz scene during the fertile 1956-1958 period. The other – and arguably more important purpose to the legions of Coltrane faithful – is its rich delineation of the evolutionary process behind one of the most profoundly important and emotionally compelling artists this planet has ever seen. With all great musicians, the message is fully contained in the music, and the message of John Coltrane is one of powerful humanism, deep spirituality, unflinching emotion, relentless searching and supreme love. Interplay offers a most revealing roadmap to the early days of discovery in his unparalleled quest. One can misinterpret the astonishing focus and commitment that Coltrane had as being singular or even self-absorbed; but that is totally off-base. Coltrane was incredibly multi-faceted, a man of many interests in the pursuit of knowledge – both subjective and objective – who absorbed everything in his vision. In these recordings, surrounded by many of the finest musicians of the era, the listener can actually experience directly how Trane responds to his colleagues, transforming his own musical concepts to perfectly contribute to each environment in which he finds himself. Despite his powerfully distinctive tone, with its molten emotional flesh-and-blood core that always contradicted the horn’s metallic substance, his presence on these recordings never diminishes the contributions of his collaborators. Like a great basketball player, his stunning talents bring out the best in his teammates, lifting the music to a level of transcendence beyond its genre. It’s the same game, but at a higher level within the imposed confines of the rules of order that govern it. Interplay is comprised of seven complete albums and three tracks from two others. All but one of the recording sessions took place between September of 1956 and September of 1957; the final one in March of 1958. In the prevalent style of this period, the sessions all contain a certain jam session context; and in fact, five of the albums were released without any specified leader – Tenor Conclave, Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors, The Cats, Wheelin’ & Dealin’ and Modern Jazz Survey 2 (reissued as Dakar under Coltrane’s name). The other two – Cattin’ with Coltrane and Quinichette, essentially a jam session “co-led” by Trane and Paul Quinichette; and Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane, Trane’s last Prestige date not under his own leadership – retained the basic jam session feel. But actually, piano great Tommy Flanagan directed The Cats, and the brilliant pianist/composer Mal Waldron was not only musical director for Interplay and Wheelin’ & Dealin’, but his presence on Dakar and Cattin’ also provided much of the cohesiveness to those dates. (The alternate versions of Wheelin’ and Dealin’ contained here were originally issued on Mal’s The Dealers.) Waldron also contributed 12 of the 34 compositions contained in this set, and performs on 20. Red Garland (5) and Tommy Flanagan (8) are the only other pianists. Waldron and Garland had considerable impact on Coltrane. Mal’s tension-filled, edge-of-your-seat-excitement solo style and Red’s blues drenched lyricism remained with Trane for the rest of his days. Garland was also Trane’s bandmate in the Miles Davis Quintet during this time, and was his pianist of choice on all of his Prestige dates as leader. The consistency of the other rhythm section members throughout this set also add to the cohesion and continuity that make it so much more than simply a collection of outstanding music. Paul Chambers and Doug Watkins share the bass duties for all but four tracks (Julian Euell handles those). Legendary drummer Art Taylor is on 21 tracks (including one track culled from his own Taylor’s Wailers album), with three other drum masters – Jimmy Cobb, Louis Hayes and Ed Thigpen – sharing the remainder. Guitarist Kenny Burrell brings his formidable talents to eight tracks as a sideman in addition to the five under his co-leadership. One unusual element contained in Interplay is hearing Trane in the company of so many other hornmen. Normally, he recorded as the sole horn, sometimes with one other soloist and on one occasion with two. Here, he is one of three or four horns on more than half the tracks, including five exceptional tenor saxophonists. In addition to Quinichette on Cattin’ and Wheelin & Dealin’, hard-bop titan Hank Mobley and the renowned tandem of Al Cohn and Zoot Sims comprise the titular Tenor Conclave; and Belgian-born Bobby Jaspar performs on Interplay. Hearing Trane’s interaction with tenor players (excluding Mobley) so steeped in the lyrical Lester Young style is particularly revealing and testimony to Coltrane’s own beautiful approach to lyricism. The amazingly nimble and lyrical flute of Frank Wess is heavily featured on Wheelin’ & Dealin’. Two excellent but underrated trumpeters – Webster Young and Idrees Sulieman – are on Interplay, with Sulieman also participating as one of The Cats. Much of Dakar’s unusual and uniquely attractive context comes from the presence of a pair of baritone sax masters, Cecil Payne and the incredible Pepper Adams. Another item of particular interest is hearing Coltrane with a guitarist. While it’s relatively unknown that Trane had considered adding Wes Montgomery to his quartet in 1960, he never used a guitar in his own groups. The five tracks sharing the front line with Burrell are made even more fascinating by the inclusion of their sensitive duet on Why Was I Born, the only known duet recording Trane ever made with a chordal instrument. The repertoire in Interplay covers a lot of ground, combining Great American Songbook Standards (How Deep Is the Ocean, I Never Knew, Why Was I Born) with Jazz classics(Things Ain’t What They Used to Be, Robbins’ Nest) and originals by Flanagan, Mobley, Burrell, Jimmy Heath, Teddy Charles and Waldron, including a 17+ minute version of his gorgeous Soul Eyes. From the biographical/historical perspective it’s important to realize that at the time of these recordings Coltrane was in the midst of his legendary stint with Thelonious Monk at the Five Spot, had just rejoined the Miles Davis Quintet and was embarking upon a personal realization and spiritual awakening that would take him to heights of immortality unapproachable by any but the most extraordinary of human beings. His evolution and development over the next – and final – ten years of his life are without equal in both prolificacy and progressiveness. To this very day, his impact upon musicians, artists of all disciplines, and individuals in all walks of life has been not only extreme, but in many ways, of biblical proportion. Interplay represents a highly significant early stage of that process. Even in its raw youthfulness, that fascinating combination of lyrical beauty and serenity juxtaposed against relentless exploration and passionate intensity was always at play. For those who have embraced his journey, these early recordings are revelatory and essential in understanding what came later. For those who just love great jazz, Interplay is pure pleasure. Following up on Prestige’s heavily acclaimed 6-CD set Fearless Leader, which collected all of Coltrane’s Prestige recordings as leader, Interplay is beautifully produced by Patrick Milligan and Cheryl Pawelski, featuring an extensive 60 page booklet with liner notes by noted historian Nat Hentoff, album notes by reputed Coltrane scholar Lewis Porter, the original album notes, and many rare photographs. The original sessions, produced by Bob Weinstock (except for Dakar by Teddy Charles) and recorded by the peerless Rudy Van Gelder have been remastered by Fantasy Studios’ master engineer Joe Tarantino for the maximum in audio quality.

Thx, I don't have it so will take it if still available.

The Max Roach Memorial rightly continues. This 1968 gem on Atlantic records was made by Roach, former Jazz Messengers bassist Jymie Merrott, and a collection of supremely gifted young lions - trumpeter Charles Tolliver, altoist Gary Bartz, and pianist Stanley Cowell. A beautiful and beautifully paced album. The first side is stunning, the way "Abstrutions" leads into "Libra", which leads into the majestic "Effi". The second side has "Equipoise", the title track (sung by Andy Bey), and "Absolutions". Every cut memorable in context, most memorable even standing on their own. This album introduced Cowell to a (relatively) wider audience - he wrote "Abstrutions", "Effi". and "Equipoise". Bartz, of course, wrote his memorable anthem "Libra", Roach wrote the title cut, and Merritt wrote "Absolutions", redone so memorably (along with Merritt's "Nommo") on Lee Morgan's 'Live at the Lighthouse" three years later. The only complaint about this album is it's brevity - the running time is less than 33 minutes. No need for that, as Tolliver, Cowell, and Bartz all alredy had memorable tunes written which could have been used on the album. For instance, no performance of Tolliver's great "On The Nile" had been released on any records. A 10 minute verion of that tune would have easily fit onto this album. As wonderful as the other cuts are, the lynchpin for me is "Effi". Every other version I have ever heard of this plays up it's undeniable loveliness. This version, while keeping the beauty of the composition, breathes fire. Roach totally steals the show. This is the cut I use to teach interested neophytes how to listen to jazz, telling them to concentrate on the bass line, as they then can hear the drums playing off the bass and the other instruments following the lead of Roach's drums. The tension and release in the drumming dynamics is breathtaking. I'm not as gifted in technical jargon as the musicians and professional critics on the board, so I'm hoping someone else can explain better what I'm trying to say about the drumming on this cut - I know others must be able to hear it, it's so stunning. Mr. Roach was one of a kind, and his music and contributions should live forever.

PM sent on Hamilton.

Allen, interested in the Chico Hamilton CD. Can you tell me what album(s) it was originally released as? I want to make sure I don't already have it. If it's not "Three Faces of Chico" or "Gongs East" material, I'll take it. thx JF

A spectacular complete CCR box set with crisp remastering and Golliwogs rarities disc came out a few years ago. No need to redo it. The 16 CD Trane has 20 year old mastering and bulky packaging. I loved 'Fearless Leader' and look forward to the new one, even though I have the 16 CD set. That being said, you're right, the Concord thing isn't going to go well. Chuck already explained a while ago that they got rid of the people who were doing the box sets, so we have 'Miles for Lovers Volume 764' and the Peter Keepnews Fondly Remembers His Father Who Isn't Yet Dead Edition of Cookin' With Miles to "look forward" to, and that's about it.

Does anyone know what those October 17 Chick Corea CD's are about?

I would say the same for the ending of the tune. BTW, anyone who likes the Happy/Sad album should pick up the live "Dream Letter" collection, if you haven't already. It's a live show done around the same time as Happy Sad with a similar vibe and aesthetic. I agree with the recommendation of 'Dream Letter', and also recommend 'Live at the Troubadour 1969'. And it's not either/or, you need both, they are different. Much of the same material title-wise, but the performances and length differ.

If I were offering cds directly to boardmembers, I don't think I would appreciate being bumped for ebay advertisements. We've all got our ebay search engines to look up your stuff and others on ebay. No need, in my opinion. to warn us of your auctions. No special advantage to us. Again that's my opinion only. You don't need to follow it. -_- What I wish is that if people are just plugging their ebay auctions, they would mark the subject line accordingly. It gets tiring to see these subject lines of all this cool stuff supposedly for sale on the board, and then take the time to open the listing to see it's just a link to a bunch of ebay auctions, which I have found to be a very inefficient way to try to buy something. I go to amazon.com marketplace or deepdiscount.com, so that I'm not wasting my time trying to bid on something only to get outbid on it. Please please please everyone mark your posting as AUCTIONS in the subject if that's what they are. If I had my way, I'd actually ban those types of postings from the board, but it's not my call. Jim, maybe there could be a separate area to post them in, so that we could safely ignore them? It's not just Brian doing this, it's a lot of people. But it is really annoying.

Rhino has a great 2 CD anthology of Buckley, 'Morning Glory', which contains six of the eight cuts from 'Blue Afternoon', including all five of the really great cuts ("Happy Time","Chase The Blues Away","I Must Have Been Blind","The River" and "Blue Melody" - it also has "So Lonely"), and three of the nine cuts from 'Starsailor' (including the only listenable one, "Monterey", plus "Moulin Rouge" and "Song For the Siren"), about 150 minutes of music, great remastering, great packaging and it's available for less than $16. I love the early Buckley stuff, 'Goodbye and Hello' is probably my all-time favorite album regardless of genre, but he lost me with 'Starsailor' and never found me again. I still subscribe to the description that AMG uses for his singing on most of 'Starsailor' , that he sounds like his liver is being torn out - slowly. Nonetheless, it is "interesting", and "historically significant", but you can get the idea from the three cuts on 'Morning Glory'. 'Blue Afternoon' is a great album, but everything that made it great is on 'Morning Glory'. Do treat yourself to the European Elektra twofer of 'Tim Buckley' and 'Goodbye and Hello', with unbelievably wonderful mastering (true of that whole series, well worth replacing those USA Paul Butterfield and Judy Collins CD's also).

I'm definitely interested in the Shipp and the Crispell, though I'm not sure how Mrs. Felser will do with either of those. The Zankel would be good, but I have a healthy fear of 18th and Diamond St. Anyone else from Phillyissimo interested in attending any of these? Any advice on how to safely park your car to attend the Zankel? I don't want to be paranoid, but I also don't want to be naive. That's arguably the worst section of Philadelphia there, and I'm a suburbs guy. thx

I'm up next week and will extend the memorial even a week further, probably with either 'Members, Don't Get Weary' or 'Deeds, Not Words'.

To paraphrase John D. Rockefeller: Q: How many CD's are enough? A: Just a few more. PM sent on the Jessica Williams.

I feel exactly the same way about Moby Grape and Love. I do like Moby Grape's first album--they caught a compelling mood in the studio while recording it, for me. Other than that, I just don't love their music, although I have tried. All of Love's output is the same way for me. Another group that I want to like from that time, but just really don't, is the group with Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, the Rising Sons. I'm with you on Moby Grape, only the first album really does it for me, and I consider it overrated really, though certainly very good. On the other hand, I think the first five Love albums (through Out Here) are pretty wonderful, with the exception of the criminal waste of the second side of Da Capo with "Revelation". It became even clearer later on what a terrible waste that was when we got to hear all those excellent Bryan McLean demos from the period of cuts Love never recorded. Rising Sons was an early prototype for all involved, would be quite long forgotten if Mahal, Cooder, and Cassidy hadn't gone on to achieve their later high profiles. There's tons of bad prototype blues-rock stuff from the mid-sixties out there.

I agree it's confusing, and I agree that the Strata-East album has lousy sound. Interesting since the earlier "Music Inc. and Big Band' on Strata-East has good sound (and is a GREAT album).

I would think so! Just don't forget to beware of the actual recorded sound, since it's close to unlistenable... :rsly: You must have much higher standards than me, it doesn't sound bad at all to my ears.

Don't remember the Braxton being in heavy rotation on MTV.

Off the top of my head: "I Will Follow" - U2 "Driver 8" - R.E.M. "Runner" - Manfred Mann's Earth Band but I suspect I should really have something by Big Country on that list, just can't decide which one.

The Art Farmer single CD.

PM sent

A GREAT set. Someome should jump on this ASAP!

I also prefer the Yardbirds to Led Zep (overall that is - the highligts of Led Zep can't be touched, but too much posturing in too much of the material for me) and Buffalo Springfield to CSNY. I also prefer the Byrds, the Hollies, Neil Young solo, and the best parts of Stephen Stills solo and David Crosby solo to CSNY.

Any chance that It's A Beautiful Day also got some relief in that judgement? If you're referring to It's a Beautiful Day's self-titled album, that one was reissued on CD in 2001. It's still available from Amazon.com and other stores. There's been a problem with US release of their entire catalog. I've managed to get import CD's of their first two albums plus their live album, but would like to get the other two titles (bad as 'Today' probably is, without David LaFlamme), remastering, bonus cuts, etc. CBS had a 2CD retrospective equivalent to the one they did on Moby Grape in the 90's and were blocked legally from putting it out due to court actions. It's a Beautiful Day and Moby Grape shared the same seemingly unscrupulous (I don't know his side of the story) manager, Matthew Katz, during their tenures with Columbia records, and he has blocked legit US releases of their catalogs for many decades.

Any chance that It's A Beautiful Day also got some relief in that judgement?